1. November 24, 2016
VAN GOGH’S SKETCHBOOK?
Vincent van Gogh is one of the
world’s most famous artists. He
never had much money. During his
lifetime Van Gogh did not sell any
of his paintings. It’s said that he
swapped one picture for some food
and other things. Nowadays, the art-
ist’s paintings sell for many millions
of dollars.
On November 15, a new book
was published. It’s called Vincent
van Gogh: The Lost Arles Sketch-
book. The book contains 65 sketch-
es, or drawings, that have recently
been discovered. The author is a
professor who works at a university
in Canada. She is an art expert and
Van Gogh scholar. On the same day,
officials from the Van Gogh Mu-
seum made an announcement. They
declared that the drawings in the
book were imitations, or fakes. The
Van Gogh Museum is in Amster-
dam, the Netherlands’ capital city.
Vincent van Gogh self-portrait painted in 1887
(Art Institute of Chicago)
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890)
came from the Netherlands. For his
time, he was an unusual painter.
Van Gogh liked to use very bright
colors, especially yellows. He suf-
fered from anxiety and mental health
problems. For the last ten years of
his life Van Gogh moved to the city
of Arles, in the south of France. He
hoped that the warmer weather in
this part of Europe would improve
his health.
The artist had a brother called
Theo. He lived in Paris, the French
capital. They frequently wrote let-
ters to each other. Van Gogh relied
on his brother for money and help
with his mental problems. Van Gogh
is famous for having cut off part of
his own ear. This happened after he
and a friend, Paul Gauguin, argued.
Gauguin (1848 – 1903) is a well-
known French artist.
Self-portrait drawing from the recently
discovered sketchbook (Editions du Seuil)
Van Gogh continued to suffer
from mental health problems. In
1890, he went to a field and shot
himself in the chest. The artist died
a few days later, aged 37. After van
Gogh’s death, ownership of all his
paintings passed to Theo. Van Gogh
created over 2,000 artworks. About
850 are oil paintings. These include:
portraits, self-portraits, landscapes,
and still life pictures. Some of van
Gogh’s most famous still life paint-
ings are of sunflowers.
The book’s author claims that
all the drawings come from a sin-
gle sketchbook. For a time, while
he lived in Arles, Van Gogh stayed
at a local café. The sketchbook, the
author says, was given to van Gogh
by the owners of the café. In 1889,
because of his mental illness, Van
Gogh went to live in an asylum. It
was not far from Arles. The follow-
ing year the artist moved to a home
not far from Paris. He did this to be
closer to his brother.Also, the doctor
who owned the home often looked
after artists. Two months later, Van
Gogh killed himself. The book’s au-
thor claims that before the artist left
Arles, he gave several items to the
café owners. The sketchbook was
one of them.
Later, another family bought the
café. The mother of the person who
owns the sketchbook married into
this family. She had no interest in
art and left the book in a cupboard.
Eventually, when her daughter was
20, she gave her the sketchbook.
This person is the sketchbook’s
owner. The sketchbook contains
a self-portrait and a picture of
Gauguin. It also includes what looks
like landscapes of the countryside
near Arles.
Officials at the Van Gogh Mu-
seum insist that the sketches do not
match Van Gogh’s style. What’s
more, they say that the drawings
were done in a type of ink that he did
not use. The museum officials also
think that the story of the sketch-
book being left in a cupboard for
many years is unlikely. Yet several
art experts believe that the drawings
are Van Gogh’s work. If so, they are
worth many millions of dollars.
